1786 ANDREW LEE. Americana Sermon with Important Mormon / Nauvoo Provenance.

Lee, Andrew. Pastor of the Church in Hanover. The Blessedness of Those who are Dead in the Lord. A Sermon Delivered September 18th, 1785. At the Funeral of Rev. Benjamin Troop, A.M. Late Pastor of the Church at New-Concord, in Norwich. Norwich. J. Trumbull, 1786. 32pp. 

Benjamin Troop had also served as an Officer in the American Revolution and at the Battle of Concord. Wonderful little piece of Americana. Aside from being a rather unusual and important sermon from the American Revolutionary War era, etc., the provenance is what makes this little item a gem.

The present belonged to Lydia Lathrop, later Lydia Lathrop Draper. Born in 1775 and raised in Norwich, home of Rev. Benjamin Troop, she married William Draper Sr. in 1794. In 1833, William was baptized as a Mormon. Lydia was slower to join, but fleeing persecution, William and Lydia ended up at Nauvoo in 1845. Because of persecution at Nauvoo, the entire community began to move Westward beginning in February of 1846. William and Lydia departed in August of 1846, but Lydia, heartbroken at the loss of their home, now over 70 years old and facing the long journey to Utah, and weary from a life of difficulty, barely made it out of the city before dying on the banks of the Mississippi River. 

Because of the push to move west, she was not even given a funeral. She was buried in a brown dress in a grave on the bank of the Mississippi in Montrose, Iowa. Her husband, William Draper, was the first patriarch of the Church not a part of the Smith family. He stayed behind in Pattawattamie lands and was charged with blessing Mormon exiles as they passed through on their way West. In 1852, Brigham Young asked him to come to Utah where his family exerted a strong influence on the new emerging communities in Spring Lake. Draperville / Draper is named for them.

By descent, through the family.

Original wraps, with stitching absent and text all present and complete, but disbound.  Light chipping and toning.